A blog for the United States branch of the global Centre for Fortean Zoology

At the beginning of the 21st Century monsters still roam the remote, and sometimes not so remote, corners of our planet. It is our job to search for them. The Centre for Fortean Zoology [CFZ] is - we believe - the largest professional, scientific and full-time organisation in the world dedicated to cryptozoology - the study of unknown animals. Since 1992 the CFZ has carried out an unparalleled programme of research and investigation all over the world. Since 2009 we have been running the increasingly popular CFZ Blog Network, and although there has been an American branch of the CFZ for over ten years now, it is only now that it has a dedicated blog.

The Native Americans preserve in their lore a number of traditions relative to monsters and unknown animals. For example, the Ahtna of Alaska speak of the gux (the x is pronounced like ch in Bach). This is evidently a scaly creature, for that is what its name indicates. Be careful, then, of swimming in Alaskan lakes. I am told that people feature in this creature's diet.

Brer Rabbit is perhaps the most famous folk hero of the United States. The stories about him were brought from Africa by slaves. Some of them seem to be based on Anansi the Spider, a rather unpleasant character. Some may be based on other tales connected with rabbits, which often appear in African folklore. Some of the stories about him may owe their origin to Cherokee tales.Brer Rabbit stories seem to have been first written down by Robert Roosevelt (1829-1906), but they attained their popularity through the writings of Joel Chandler Harris (1845-1908). He placed them in the mouth of Uncle Remus, a fictitious old Afro-American who made his first appearance in the Atlantic Constitution (1876). Harris went on to write a series of books about Brer Rabbit, couched in Afro-American dialect.Folklorists use the term Trickster to denote a character who lives on his wits, always diving and dodging. A rabbit, with so little defensive resources, makes an excellent subject for Trickster tales. Brer Rabbit was not lacking in persons he had to outwit. In the picture above you can see Brer Fox and Brer Wolf, both hungry for the taste of bunny. Brer Tarrypin, a friendly character, is also in the picture. So are some strange looking women. If you wish to see more strange looking women, you should come to the CFZ Weird Weekend, where strange looking women proliferate.Other persons of note in the stories are the flying and dangerous Mr Buzzard, the animals' enemy, Mister Man, and Jedge B'ar.Although Uncle Remus is fictitious, Harris had among his sources Afro-Americans referred to as Uncle George Terrell, Aunt Crissy and Old Harbert.Mind you, rabbits are not always as helpless as you might think. I know of a friend of my sister who bought a house. The former occupant asked her if she could leave her pet rabbit behind. This creature lived in a hutch in the backyard. When she went to feed it, it jumped out in an aggressive way and ran off. Some minutes later a mailman entered the backyard. He claimed in outraged tones that he had been attacked and bitten by the rabbit. During the night, a telephone call was received from a neighbor, claiming the rabbit had attacked and bitten his cat. What ultimately befell this warlike lagomorph I know not. One is reminded of General Woundwort in Watership Down.

Humanoids with a possibly ET origin may not belong to cryptozoology strictu sensu; but, being presumably animal, such beings fall into the category of Fortean zoology. Here are details of some encounters.now read on.....

The remarks I am about to make do not apply to all sausages, but they do apply to a great many. And as sausages are made from animal meat, I feel this information is not out of place on a quasi-zoological site such as this.I was told by a butcher's daughter that, if I knew what really went into sausages, I would nevermore eat one. Sausages crafted by her father, she added, did not fall into this inedible category. But she would not elaborate on what went into the other ones.I could only use my imagination, so I imagined snout, eyeball, ear, cheek, gum (the kind teeth grow out of), tail and goodness alone knew what from actually inside the pig concerned. So, I pass the message on to you - think before you eat a sausage. I know of one sausage factory of which it is said that anyone who had worked there would never eat a sausage thereafter.Mind you, if you just love sausages or, for that matter, hot dogs, you could always try a vegetarian sausage. However, I tried one once and I have no desire to repeat the experiment. It tasted gross.So, unless you know a butcher who takes care only to put congenial meat in his sausages, either don't eat them or blank out your mind to their possible content if you do.

As some of you will know, the word gnome was coined by Paracelsus, but these days it is applied to diminutive beings in folklore. Was a photograph of one taken in Pennsylvania? Read this communication sent to Linda Moulton Howe.

If you want to know more about the Mothman Festival to be held next month, follow the link.now read on.....For information about the Miss Mothman pageant, to be held at the Festival, follow this one:now read on.....

The rougarou is a kind of wolfman in Cajun folklore. Here we have a video of a rougarou hunt. Readers are reminded that the French for a werewolf is loup-garou, which is probably the origin of the term, but among Chippewa Indians the term rugaru is used for a hairy wildman.have a look.....

A couple of days ago, I mentioned the adventures of Shane Dunphy, searching for the dobharchú on Omey Island off the Irish coast. He shared another experience with me, which will, I trust, be of interest.He was driving along one day through the Irish countryside when his attention was distracted by a herd of cows in a field. Near them was a large dog which bore some resemblance to an Afghan hound. The problem with the dog was that it was too large, much too big in proportion to the cattle.Asking a local later what he might have seen, the latter at once suggested it was the púca (anglicized pooka), a creature of Irish folklore. The púca is a shapeshifter and can supposedly assume a variety of forms. It is particularly well known for making appearances as a horse which breathes blue flames.Was this huge dog a paranormal creature. If not, what was it?

2001: Hollywood makeup artist John Chambers, recipient of
special Academy Award in 1968 for his work on Planet of the Apes, dies
in a Los Angeles hospital at age 78. Shortly before his death, in an interview
conducted by Sasquatch researcher Bobbie Short, Chambers denied persistent
rumors that he created the costume for a female Sasquatch shown in Roger
Patterson's Bluff Creek film of October 20, 1967.

Sunday, 24 August 2014

Is it possible that there are other universes? If so, it is of course conceivable that cryptids might wander out of them into ours sometimes, if they can find portals between them. But what does contemporary science say about other universes? Is it comfortable with the idea? Well, yes, it is.now read on.....

1969: Five construction workers on a job at Big Horn Dam, on
Alberta's North Saskatchewan River, report being watched for half an hour by
Sasquatch. After stating that the creature was half a mile distant, they claim
it was 15 feet tall.

Many of you will be familiar with the Dobharchú (plural dobharchon), an animal in Irish folklore, pronounced either doovarchoo or doowarchoo, the ch as in Bach. The word in Irish means an otter, but at times it means a special kind of legendary otter of very large proportions. This creature of folklore is decidedly dangerous and many cryptozoologists will be familiar with the legend of Gráinne Ní Conlaí who was supposedly killed by one of the monsters. Her husband came upon the corpse. The lines of a local ballad describe what he saw:Upon her bosom, snow-white once,But now besmeared with gore,The Dobharchú reposing was,His surfeiting being o'er,Her bowels and entrails all around, Tinged with a reddish hue.'Oh, God!' he cried, ' 'tis hard to bear,'But what am I to do?'According to tradition, he went home, procured his gun and shot the beast, only to be attacked by another. It too was slain. On Gráinne's tomb at the local churchyard there is a strange animal, thought to be a dobharchú. (Gráinne's name is sometimes anglicized as Grace). Although this encounter is placed in Leitrim, the animal is certainly part of the legendry of the adjoining counties of Sligo and Donegal. P.S. Dinneen in his Irish-English Dictionary places it in Donegal.However, at Omey Island, off the coast of County Galway, traditions of it certainly persist to this day. I was recently informed by ace journalist Shane Dunphy that many people in the vicinity claim to have actually seen the creature. One local with whom he was watching television saw a film of the Brazilian Giant otter. This person had seen the Dobharchú and proclaimed it was the same animal.Shane determined to camp out on Omey Island one night to see if he encountered anything unusual. The island's only permanent resident was absent that night. During the hours of darkness, he heard something snuffling outside his tent. He quickly made sure his tent was closed, for he feared attack. In the morning he found a print in some cowdung. His snuffling visitor remains a mystery.